I agree that you want a long bed but I want to get to the meat and vedge of this issue.
The 22R has plenty of power if you are not trying to power an American 1 ton.
Heavy trucks break parts more often than light trucks.
Light trucks get better milage.
Light trucks are easier on tires.
Tires for light trucks cost less.
You don't need a truck to tow a 4 wheeler. A 4 door Honda will tow a trailer and get much better milage than a pick up.
You will never use your four wheel drive unless you are MountainRedneck. It will only be more spinning shit to break.
You need to take economy into account when you are buying a daily driver. I own 3 pickups, a Ford Ranger which is my daily driver. It gets 25 miles to the gallon and I can find new tires for $50-$100 each depending on how good of a tire I want.
I own a F-250 3/4ton extended cab longbed with a 351 cid for rocking down the highway loaded it gets about 16 mpg depending on the way I drive it. That truck is fantastic if you are running down the highway loaded but I HATE driving it to the grocery store because of the way it eats fuel.
I also own a F-350 one ton flatbed duelly with a 300 cid straight 6. This truck is a dog on the highway and gets 8 miles to the gallon but will haul 60 bales of hay out of the field. I can put 4 cords of wood or two pallets of block on it and it will run. I have never 'over loaded' this truck.
Each one of these pickups has somethings that they are really good for and other things that they are really bad for but the point is that I use the one that gets the best economy the most and that economy has allowed me to own other trucks that better fit other roles. If lets say I was to drive the one ton to work and back everyday it would be all I could do just to keep the tanks full. It would absorb my paycheck leaving me with very little expendable income. So think about that when you are looking around. Everything costs something my friend.
not always bro
the guy i work with has a dodge half ton with 690hp, that gets 25mpg
and its the fastest thing on the road
it really depends on your line of work too
i could never use a ford ranger
it just cant do what my other trucks do
i mean if you just want a truck just cause then get either a 1/2 ton or one of them 1/4 tons if you want the gas mileage
but if your really gonna work that bitch get a half ton
and if you do something like tile or landscaping go diesel
as far as 4wd drive goes, its true unless you live where i do or you go looking for trouble 2wd will do you just fine
hell i been driving a rwd car for a good while now to save on gas and even in the storm that hit just now where people went apeshit about the roads i still got everywhere in that car....
if you know your vehicle you can get them to go just about anywhere